scholarly journals Students’ Attitudes towards Cambridge Unlock Workbook: English Intermediate I Level at Birzeit University

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arab World English Journal ◽  
Andira A. Abdallah ◽  
Nariman M. Morrar
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Negative Attitude ◽  
Online Homework ◽  
Online Program ◽  
Reading Vocabulary ◽  
Written Comments ◽  
Vocabulary Building ◽  
Students Attitudes ◽  
Traditional Homework

The purpose of this study is to investigate the attitudes of English Intermediate I students at Birzeit University (BZU) towards Cambridge Unlock online homework. It also aims at evaluating the effectiveness of the online activities, from the students’ perspective, in regard to their in-class language learning skills; reading, writing, listening, speaking, and vocabulary building. The sample for this study is 200 undergraduate students at BZU who were placed at English Intermediate I level. A questionnaire was given to the students during the second month of their second semester. The overall results of the students’ responses showed inconclusive attitude towards online homework. Only 22.5% of the students thought it was more helpful than traditional homework. While an average of 66% of students’ responses showed that the online homework was beneficial to their in-class language skills activities; reading, vocabulary, and listening; an average of 48% only stated that it was effective in improving their writing skills. In addition, the written comments on the online program provided by a total of 141 students showed a negative attitude towards the online homework program with only 20% who stated that it was beneficial to their language learning.

Blending classroom instruction with online homework: A study of student perceptions of computer-assisted L2 learning

ReCALL ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 208-224 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nuria Sagarra ◽  
Gabriela C. Zapata
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Student Perceptions ◽  
Classroom Instruction ◽  
Computer Assisted ◽  
Online Homework ◽  
User Friendliness ◽  
Assessment Tests ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
Students Attitudes ◽  
The Impact

AbstractThis study investigates the impact of an online workbook on the attitudes of 245 second language (L2) Spanish learners toward this pedagogical tool over two consecutive semesters. The treatment consisted of four hours of classroom instruction and one set of online homework per week, during two consecutive semesters. Students' attitudes toward the electronic workbook were measured by means of a survey administered after eight months of exposure to the workbook. The qualitative data of the survey was compared to quantitative data from two different language assessment tests. The results of these tests indicated a significant increase in grammar scores. These results are consonant with the positive findings of student perceptions about the online workbook obtained in this and previous studies, emphasizing its benefits in terms of accessibility to the material, user-friendliness, and instant error feedback. More importantly, most students praised the usefulness of the online workbook for language learning, particularly in the areas of grammar and vocabulary acquisition. Despite participants' mostly positive attitudes, the survey also revealed some negative aspects of the use of the online workbook, such as the amount of time needed to complete the online exercises. This paper addresses these issues, and provides suggestions to overcome this type of problem.

scholarly journals UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS TOWARD BLENDED LEARNING THROUGH INSTAGRAM IN ENGLISH FOR BUSINESS CLASS

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 64
Author(s):  
Fatimah Mulya Sari ◽  
Achmad Yudi Wahyudin
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Blended Learning ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Digital Literacy ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
Millennial Students ◽  
Task Instructions ◽  
Students Attitudes

Addressing the needs of the millennial students brings the implemention of blended learning using social network site in the teaching and learning process. Instagram becomes one of the most popular social network sites in Indonesia. It has been a potential teaching platform to help English teachers to facilitate language learning, especially for learners at the tertiary level. This paper is intended to explore the students’ perceptions toward English language learning and the implementation of Instagram in their English for Business class. Students’ attitudes toward English course should be investigated to form a basis for this further study. The subjects were 116 undergraduate students who took general English for Business course at the Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science, University of Teknokrat Indonesia. They were classified into three groups. The data gained were from observation, questionnaire, and interview. The data, then, were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The results indicated that most students showed high positive perceptions in using Instagram in their learning since social network Instagram influenced their motivation, engangement, and attitudes. In addition, internet connection and its speed, misunderstanding, and miscommunication toward the materials and task instructions were considered as the problems that hamper their learning. Instagram might help the students to learn English Language. Thus, it is suggested to improve the teaching of technology skills by preparing suitable digital literacy in academic content.

scholarly journals College students’ attitudes towards the use of Flipgrid to improve speaking skills

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (3.1) ◽  
pp. 161-170
Author(s):  
Silvia Elizabeth Cárdenas Sánchez ◽  
Ximena Elizabeth Naranjo Lozada
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Online Classes ◽  
Online Resource ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
Points Of View ◽  
Students Attitudes ◽  
Speaking Skills

Introduction. Flipgrid, as a tool to use in class, has been designed in order to help teachers and students record videos and post them on Internet. Research has demonstrated that it works for teaching and learning English since it promotes students´ interactions. Objective. This research aims to analyze students´ points of view about their speaking improvement using Flipgrid. Methodology. There were 65 undergraduate students, with a A2 English level, who participated in this study and they were attending online classes because of the pandemic. Students recorded around five videos individually during the academic period and at the end of the semester they answered a questionnaire and had an interview with the instructor. The interviews were necessary in order to know opinions and attitudes about the use of Flipgrid as an innovative form of instruction of English as a Foreign Language. Results. The results demonstrated that students liked to use Flipgrid and their confidence, motivation, vocabulary, language and pronunciation improved. Conclusion. The use of Flipgrid as an online resource can be beneficial for students in order to promote speaking skills; however, there are some important implications that language instructors need to consider during the language learning process if they decide to use Flipgrid in classes.

The Impact of TimeSlips on Undergraduate Students in Service Learning With Older Adults

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Sabine Heuer
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Service Learning ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Attitude Scale ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Attitudes Toward Older Adults ◽  
Students Attitudes ◽  
Attitude Shift ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Journal Entries

Purpose Future speech-language pathologists are often unprepared in their academic training to serve the communicative and cognitive needs of older adults with dementia. While negative attitudes toward older adults are prevalent among undergraduate students, service learning has been shown to positively affect students' attitudes toward older adults. TimeSlips is an evidence-based approach that has been shown to improve health care students' attitudes toward older adults. The purpose of this study is to explore the change in attitudes in speech-language pathology students toward older adults using TimeSlips in service learning. Method Fifty-one students participated in TimeSlips service learning with older adults and completed the Dementia Attitude Scale (DAS) before and after service learning. In addition, students completed a reflection journal. The DAS data were analyzed using nonparametric statistics, and journal entries were analyzed using a qualitative analysis approach. Results The service learners exhibited a significant increase in positive attitude as indexed on the DAS. The reflective journal entries supported the positive change in attitudes. Conclusions A noticeable attitude shift was indexed in reflective journals and on the DAS. TimeSlips is an evidence-based, patient-centered approach well suited to address challenges in the preparation of Communication Sciences and Disorders students to work with the growing population of older adults.

British Council’s English for Academic Purposes (EAP) Students’ Manual: A Critical Analysis of the Coursebook Taught at Pakistani Universities for Academic Purposes (EAP) Students’ Manual: A Critical Analysis of the Coursebook Taught at Pakistani Universities

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
English For Academic Purposes ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Teaching Principles

English for Academic Purposes course focusing on the academic language needs of students is a subfield of English for Specific Purposes (ESP). It is a type of specialized course to integrate specific subject matter, language content, and material based on learners’ needs. The study aims to evaluate the British Council’s English for Academic Purposes (EAP) coursebook in terms of content, sequencing, learners’ autonomy, motivation, feedback and focus on language skills. Furthermore, the study tries to provide a general perception of the usefulness and effectiveness of the coursebook for undergraduate students. The EAP Students’ Manual coursebook is used as a primary source for the data collection. The researcher has chosen Nation & Macalister (2010) model of language teaching principles to analyze and discuss the data. The study found the coursebook a useful, effective and an appropriate source of English language learning in terms of the investigated aspects of the book. The findings report that the coursebook provides practice and practical usage in all domains of the academically required English language skills. It helps the students to build language competency and to be more independent learners. In addition, it provides an opportunity to the learners to think in the target language, use the language more practically and learn it in a natural type of environment. The study concludes and suggests that the content needs to be supplemented with English language audios and videos presenting the students relevant documentaries and helping material in order to make the coursebook and the learning process more useful, effective, interesting and motivating. Furthermore, the study recommends that while choosing /designing a coursebook for a certain course, it needs to be evaluated following the various criteria and language-teaching-principles suggested by different language researchers.

Needs Analysis and Teachers' Perceptions: A Study of the English Undergraduate Students

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
English Language ◽  
Needs Analysis ◽  
Learning Needs ◽  
English Learning ◽  
Visual Aids ◽  
Analysis Model ◽  
Classroom Activities ◽  
Teaching Aids

Needs Analysis in the context of language-learning-teaching is an important process to design a certain course and syllabus. It helps course designers to set objectives, choose content, method of instruction, appropriate teaching aids, and classroom activities for different courses. This paper reports the perceptions of the researchers on the English language learning needs of the English undergraduate students of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto University Sheringal, Pakistan. The data is based on the researchers’ personal experience and first-hand observation of the population as the researchers have been teaching in the target context for about a decade. Furthermore, the researchers have always been in discussion with their students and colleagues about the target students’ English learning needs, preferred learning styles, motivation in learning English, interest, strengths/weaknesses, and attitude toward English learning in the target setting. Learners’ assignments, exam answer sheets, and presentations have also been used is a source of data collection. A needs analysis model proposed by Hutchinson and Waters (1987) has been applied in order to analyze the data. The results show that the students lack well grammatical sentences, have poor spellings, capitalization problems, limited vocabulary, unaware of collocations, poor/slow reading comprehension, and lack of effective presentation skills. Furthermore, most of the students have a lack of involvement in classroom activities and feel shy about speaking the English language. It was reported that the provision of authentic material, interesting activities, suitable audio-visual aids, relevant texts, language labs, and other logistic arrangements can better help them in learning the English language. The findings demonstrate that the students wished to have a learner-centered-course that helps them excel in their academic life and learning the English language.

British Council’s English for Academic Purposes (EAP) Students’ Manual: A Critical Analysis of the Coursebook Taught at Pakistani Universities

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
English For Academic Purposes ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Teaching Principles ◽  
Language Needs

English for Academic Purposes course focusing on the academic language needs of students is a subfield of English for Specific Purposes (ESP). It is a type of specialized course to integrate specific subject matter, language content, and material based on learners’ needs. The study aims to evaluate the British Council’s English for Academic Purposes (EAP) coursebook in terms of content, sequencing, learners’ autonomy, motivation, feedback and focus on language skills. Furthermore, the study tries to provide a general perception of the usefulness and effectiveness of the coursebook for undergraduate students. The EAP Students’ Manual coursebook is used as a primary source for the data collection. The researcher has chosen Nation & Macalister (2010) model of language teaching principles to analyze and discuss the data. The study found the coursebook a useful, effective and an appropriate source of English language learning in terms of the investigated aspects of the book. The findings report that the coursebook provides practice and practical usage in all domains of the academically required English language skills. It helps the students to build language competency and to be more independent learners. In addition, it provides an opportunity to the learners to think in the target language, use the language more practically and learn it in a natural type of environment. The study concludes and suggests that the content needs to be supplemented with English language audios and videos presenting the students relevant documentaries and helping material in order to make the coursebook and the learning process more useful, effective, interesting and motivating. Furthermore, the study recommends that while choosing /designing a coursebook for a certain course, it needs to be evaluated following the various criteria and language-teaching-principles suggested by different language researchers.

English Students’ Attitudes towards English Language Teaching and Learning at IAIN Padangsidimpuan

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ida Royani ◽  
T. Silvana Sinar
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Role Models ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
English Learning ◽  
Learner Centered ◽  
Students Attitudes ◽  
English Students

This study investigated the English students’ attitudes of IAIN Padangsidimpuan towards both English language teaching in terms of (a) language-centered, (b) learner-centered, and (c) learning-centered method; and learning English in terms of scales (a) attitudes toward long-term English learning, (b) interest in culture and communication, (c) perception about studying in school context, (d) images associated with English, (e) English learning activities, (f) exposure to English outside school, (g) self-rated four English skills, (h) self-reported academic English grade, and (i) identification of English role models. The data were obtained by questionnaire and interview from 10 selected students in which 4 male and 6 female students in 7th semester and were analyzed by steps provided by Gay, L.R and Airasian (1996). The result showed:  first, English students’ attitudes towards English language teaching had been found highly onlearning-centered method, followed by learner-centered method in second range, and almost negative view in language-centered method.Second, English students’ attitudes towards English language learningwere positivein scales; long-term English learning, interest in communication, and images associated with English.  Third, role of students’ gender on English language learning were not found. Reasons for this statement are (i) status of English as international language and (ii) equalization of getting education for male and female. Keywords: attitude, language teaching, language learning, and gender

“English is the best way to communicate” - South African Indian students’ blind spot towards the relevance of Zulu

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 155-171
Author(s):  
Sana Jeewa ◽  
Stephanie Rudwick
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
South African ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Language Ideologies ◽  
Policy Decision ◽  
Blind Spot ◽  
Language Management ◽  
Kwazulu Natal ◽  
The Status ◽  
Indian Students

AbstractThe South African University of KwaZulu-Natal has developed an ambitious language policy aiming “to achieve for isiZulu the institutional and academic status of English” (UKZN LP 2006/2014). Part of this ambition is a mandatory Zulu language module that all undergraduate students have to pass if they cannot prove knowledge of the language. In this article, we examine attitudes of South African Indian students towards this compulsory module against the strained history and relationship between Zulu and Indian people in the province. Situated within the approach of Language Management Theory (LMT), our focus is on students as micro level actors who are affected by a macro level policy decision. Methodologically combining quantitative and qualitative tools, we attempt to find answers to the following broad question: What attitudes do South African Indian students have towards Zulu more generally and the UKZN module more specifically? The empirical findings show that students’ motivations to learn Zulu are more instrumental than integrative as the primary goal is to ‘pass’ the module. South African Indian students have developed a blind spot for the prevalence and significance of Zulu in the country which impacts negatively on the general attitudes towards the language more general and the module more specifically. Language ideologies that elevate the status of English in the country further hamper the success of Zulu language learning.

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